Even more than most presidents, President Donald Trump likes to draw attention to his executive order signings. He often turns these events into impromptu press conferences, and seems to relish changing the government with the stroke of his pen. But on Tuesday, Trump skipped the fanfare and privately signed an order issuing new regulations on artificial intelligence. Why the uncharacteristic shunning of the cameras? Perhaps because he realized the order makes him look like a pushover.
Ostensibly, the order revises Trump’s previously hands-off stance on the AI industry. But what looks like a move toward regulation is in reality a gift to the tech industry. The process is so meager that it allows the participating companies to claim concern about the public good while offering little in exchange. Part of the reason it is weak is because Trump allowed key industry figures to convince him to water it down it to the point that they believe it couldn’t get in the way of their profit-maximizing behavior.
Trump’s last-second softening of the order underscores how much it was designed to satisfy Silicon Valley.
Even before tech executives intervened directly with the president, this executive order was crafted with the blessing of the industry it’s meant to be regulating. Politico reports that an earlier draft of the order “had been reviewed by the tech giants OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.”
The order creates a framework under which AI companies can voluntarily submit their new models to the government 30 days in advance of releasing them publicly. That pause, Politico reports, is intended to “give federal agencies some time to gauge what threats the products may pose to sensitive financial, national security and other computer systems.” The order also creates a “cybersecurity clearinghouse” intended to identify and fix security vulnerabilities uncovered by the new AI models.
Trump was expected to sign an earlier version of this order a few weeks ago. But it was scrapped just hours before the Oval Office ceremony. That’s because, as Politico and other publications have reported, Trump’s former “AI czar,” David Sacks, convinced Trump to can that version — which asked participating companies to submit their models 90 days in advance instead of 30 — would limit the pace of AI development too much. Major industry figures, including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, called Trump to complain as well.
Trump’s last-second softening of the order underscores how much it was designed to satisfy Silicon Valley. The motivations of Musk and Zuckerberg are obvious to anyone, and Sacks, as a venture capitalist with stakes in hundreds of companies with ties to AI, is hardly a neutral observer.
J.B. Branch, counsel for AI governance and technology policy at Public Citizen, a government watchdog, said the executive order’s provisions were “on the verge of meaningless.”
“Models powerful enough to threaten cybersecurity and national security warrant real oversight,” Branch said in a statement, according to MarketWatch. “Congress and the administration should enact comprehensive federal AI legislation with enforceable safeguards, transparency requirements, independent testing and meaningful protections for workers, consumers, children and civil rights.”
Riki Parikh, policy director of The Alliance for Secure AI, a nonprofit that promotes safeguards for AI, also called the measure “not enough.”
“Congress should take the structure this order creates, make participation mandatory, and extend it beyond cyber threats to the full range of risks the most capable models present,” Parikh told the LA Times.
Trump might have been sheepish about appearing to be “anti-innovation” in the eyes of the AI industry hype men who balk at the idea of even a hint of regulation (which includes a faction within the White House). But it’s also possible he’s aware of how the public is souring on AI. Given Trump’s positions on rolling back federal AI protections, preserving the right to autonomous weapons, blocking states from enforcing their own AI regulations, and the watering down of his new executive order, it’s clear he sides with the tech tycoons, not the public.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy.